We had lots of adventures during a week-long visit from Aunt S and Uncle J, but I'm waiting to write that post when I have all the pictures. In the meantime, here are some other fun things we've been up to!

She's not so tall!

Under the Big Top
The girls have been wanting to go to a circus for ages, but it just never worked out for us to go before. They were thrilled when I happened across a good deal on tickets and an open spot on the calendar. Since their ideas about circuses come from books and movies, Daddy and I tried to temper their expectations (no animals, no side shows, and only one ring--but there will be cool acrobatics and silly clowns!).

Bug summed up the experience well, "It didn't quite live up to my expectations, but it was still fun." They all agreed on one thing, though--the cotton candy did not disappoint!

Track & Field
All three girls started track and field practice the week S and J came to visit. They're now doing pretty hardcore training (an hour and a half of practice 3 nights a week) on a legit team that's part of the USATF.

Lion is loving it, as expected! Her only disappointment is that the longest distance for her age group is only about a mile. She's also run into the unexpected challenge of not knowing how to sprint! She's used to the slow start of long-distances races, so gunning it right off the block has proved difficult. She'll get there! Monkey and Bug have more mixed feelings about the sport so far. They're both doing well, but they've never had to work so physically hard for something! These first couple weeks are just conditioning--lots of sprints! They're both looking forward to the introduction of more events and getting to try things that aren't just running.

Celts in the Tropics!
We were all excited to discover that even Hawaii has a Celtic Festival with Highland Games! It's much smaller than ones we've attended on the mainland, but it was still a lot of fun. The girls' favorite part was the hand weavers booth where they spent quite a bit of time learning to use the looms and helping these ladies create a couple of scarves. Daddy and I watched several events in the games (he's decided to compete next year), and the girls rejoined us to watch the caber toss. On our way out we grabbed fresh scones for snack and stopped to watch the Creative Anachronism folks stage a melee. Good times! 

Our first stop on the big island was Mauna Kea. We couldn't
go all the way up, but we stopped at the visitor center.
The girls think it's cold here!

Big Island AdventuresWe completed our first island-hopping vacation! We took a short flight to the island of Hawaii, and got to experience being out of sight of the ocean for the first time in a year. There are actually wide open spaces on that island! For our first five days we stayed in a cabin at Volcanoes National Park, and did our outdoor exploring from there. So many good hikes and cool things to see--lots of lava formations and craters, steam vents and sulfur springs, black and green sand beaches, neat plants and animals. . . . We even experienced a 5.5 earthquake!

From the park we also did a day trip into Hilo, where we saw Rainbow Falls, an amazing banyan tree, and Kaumana Caves (a lava tube). While in town, we also visited an art exhibit by the local wood-turning club (there were some gorgeous and impressive pieces on display) and a nature photographer's gallery, where we got to hear his wife's tales of how he got some of those photos (he melted a pair of tennis shoes standing on not-quite-cool-enough lava!) and we purchased one of his photos of an active lava flow.

Photo op in Kailua-Kona!

For our last two nights we drove to the other side of the island to stay in the resort town of Kailua-Kona, where we visited more local art galleries, did some souvenir shopping, toured a Hawaiian palace, and visited the City of Refuge (what's left of a royal residence location and a sanctuary city that was used until the early 1800s).

Here are some of the highlights in photos!

This volcano is still steaming! (about 1/2 mile from our cabin)

This bleak landscape is a good portion of the Mauna Ulu Trail
This 3-mile hike through a lava flow from the 70s led to the
summit of a cinder cone volcano.

Fortunately, there were ahu (piles of rocks) for us to follow!

The lava left a nice little chair!
Also note Monkey's bloody knee. For the record, falling on lava
is like falling on broken glass. She was a trooper and finished
the hike after a short rest. 

The girls thought this lava bridge was fascinating.

This part of the lava flow formed a perfect road for the trail to follow.

These nene (endangered Hawaiian geese) were hanging out at the trailhead.
There are only a few hundred left, so it was excited to see two up close!

This shot is from the Pu'u Loa Trail, which leads to an area full
of tons of petroglyphs like the ones picutred below. Their exact
 age and meaning is unknown.

We drove as far as we could inside the park,
and found an overlook of this sea arch.

There were lots of crater overlooks inside the park.
This one was fantastic for making echoes!

Here the girls are at the edge of the Kilauea Caldera. It's still steaming
and much of the park past this point is closed due to the poisonous gas
still being released.

This is why you can't drive on Crater Rim Drive anymore!
We walked the section open to hikers, but even we weren't allowed past this point.

One last shot from the park--the Sulfur Banks!

The black sand beach was so cool! It's not a good swimming beach,
but the girls played in the sand and tidal pools.

 

See those sea turtles behind Monkey and Lion?!
They like to hang out here because the sand is so warm.

Bug thinks it looks like caviar!

We followed a steep set of stairs into Kaumana Caves lava tube.

This might have been the girls favorite part of the trip!
Past the stairs there are no lights, no handrails--just you and
your headlamp and 20 miles of lava tube. We explored about
a quarter mile in before heading back. This involved crawling through
some section--even for the girls!

Photo op at Rainbow Falls!

If you walk up past the falls, you get to see this amazing banyan
tree. Yes, that's all one plant, including the line of trees you
see on the far side. The banyan's branches stretch out and send
down new trunks in a circle around it.

Photo op at South Point! (the southernmost point in the U.S.)

We did a 6-mile round-trip hike to see Green Sand Beach.
While the trail does follow the coastline, most of it is so eroded that
you're hiking through little canyons like this.

There it is!

We made it! We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach before heading back.

Posing by the ki'i (Hawaiian gods) outside the City of Refuge.

Learning how to play konane (a traditional Hawaiian strategy game)

Look! I was on this trip too!

I realized I have updates other than the big adventures! Here's what else we've been up to:

Lion and Monkey participated in their music school's Valentine's recital. This was Monkey's first time on stage without her sisters! She played the drum part for "Linus and Lucy" using brushes. She did a great job! (Her drum teacher is excited to have a student interested in jazz and playing with brushes.) Lion's piece was last minute decision with her teacher. She performed beautifully, but says she wants more time and a more challenging song for next time.

The girls have started studying Spanish in earnest. We've dabbled in it before with some pre-writing resources, but now we're using Rosetta Stone. Everybody is loving this program! Even Daddy and I are going through to brush up our skills (It's been way too long!). The girls and have also been using this as an excuse to go back and watch episodes of their favorite preschool show: Pocoyo, this time in it's original Spanish.

Daddy's playing in a work-related soccer league, so this weekend we got to head to the field to watch Daddy play. Admittedly, the girls didn't actually watch much of the game. However, the did a great job toddler herding so another mom could watch her husband play. They also discovered a nearby climbing tree with a great swing. Fun times!

Lion started participating in a kids running club last week. She's very excited! During their first practice, they had the kids run a mile. Lion left her peers in the dust and finished fourth behind a trio of 12-year-old boys.

Everybody loves science! Here the girls are experimenting
with levers and the laws of gravity. Wonder Woman and a
Play-mobile lady were happy to help.

Daddy had a long weekend for President's Day, so we decided to do more exploring. Our initial plans to go snorkeling had to be postponed--the girls woke up with nasty colds, and the weather was bit chilly for snorkeling (in the 60s! People are pulling out their winter coats! I had to laugh.) We did some other land-based things instead.

Punchbowl Memorial Cemetery
This national cemetery commemorates the dead and missing from WWII, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. In addition to the graves and the memorial walls, it also featured a wall of mosaic maps illustrating U.S. naval operations in the Pacific. The cemetery's use of the Gettysburg Address and another Lincoln quote meant we also ended up discussing the Civil War.

Overlooking the 112 acre cemetery, we talked about how freedom isn't free
and our responsibility to use that freedom wisely.

Ka'ena Point Hike
This was a fantastic 6-mile hike for a relatively cool day. It's a coastal trail, so there's barely a scrap of shade, but the views are fantastic for the entire length. For better or worse, it had rained quite a bit this weekend and massive puddles had overtaken the trail in many areas, which meant we did a lot of rock scrambling and side stepping in our attempts not to get too muddy (Monkey and Lion were thrilled with this added layer of challenge; Bug, however, was not pleased to be in constant imminent danger of getting muddy.) The real payoff was the wildlife sightings and she was definitely the most excited about those! We saw numerous humpback whales spouting off the coast, three monk seals lounging on a rocky beach, and a bunch of nesting Laysan albatrosses (such amazing birds--up to 10-foot wingspans!) We even got to see two albatross chicks! So cute!

This rock formation made the perfect bench for three little hikers!

Standing on the westernmost point of Oahu! (They didn't stand
there long--turns out we were within yards of a seal and hadn't noticed him!)

Granddad caught it on camera--Grandma's in the tree too!

Grandma & Granddad Come to Visit!
They were only here for five full days, but we packed in a lot of fun! In addition to all the touristy things, the girls and grandparents enjoyed just hanging around the house, going on walks through the neighborhood, putting on a mini recital, climbing trees, and playing games on the Wii.

One of the first touristy outings was a Pearl Harbor Memorial Tour hosted by the Navy. It started with a brief talk about the boathouse where we began and the boat we'd be touring in, moved on to a photo gallery and a video presentation about the events at Pearl Harbor in WWII, then we boarded the boat and were taken around to various noteworthy sites. (Sadly, the Arizona Memorial is still undergoing repairs.)

The most iconic sight of the tour: The wreck of the USS Arizona, where it all began, on the right
and the USS Missouri, where the treaty was signed at the end, on the left.

Next up, the Polynesian Culture Center, comprised of six "villages" that featured demonstrations of art, music, clothing, games, and traditional skills from six different Polynesian islands. We also took advantage of the marketplace outside the center and wandered through a few shops and enjoyed Dole Whip--one of our favorite Hawaii treats! We stayed for dinner, and "Ha: Breath of Life," a major theatrical production that involved 100 actors/dancers/singers showcasing the various island cultures while telling the story of one man's life.

The canoe parade featured costumes, music, and dancing
from various Polynesian cultures.

Bug decided to try out a New Zealand weaving technique.

We decided to take the grandparents on a trail Daddy hadn't been on yet either--the Moanalua Valley Road Trail. It's a four-mile round trip on an old carriage road that crosses seven little bridges, has an offshoot trail to the ruins of a mansion from the early 1900s, and ends at a large boulder with a bunch of ancient petroglyphs.

Lion atop the remains of the mansion's lanai

We also spent a morning at Wahiawa Botanical Center, reportedly the best garden on the island. It did not disappoint--lots of trails with some very impressive plants. Here's just a few of the things we found:

Look at this massive seed pod!

Lion was very excited about these umbrella-sized leaves.

This rainbow eucalyptus tree was amazing! 

You can't visit Hawaii without visiting a beach! We decided to spend a morning at Bellows Beach this time. Even on a holiday weekend there was plenty of room for boogie boarding, sand castle building, and going for walks.